Letters from Tolkien
If you read my post from Monday about letters, you may recall that I have recently checked out a volume of J.R.R. Tolkien's letters. I am so pleased to have happened upon the book and have enjoyed reading through some of his letters. Here are a few bits that I've particularly enjoyed.
From a letter to Anne Barrett at Houghton Mifflin Co. dated August 30, 1964:
C.S.L. (C.S. Lewis) of course had some oddities and could sometimes be irritating. He was after all and remained an Irishman of Ulster. But he did nothing for effect; he was not a professional clown, but a natural one, when a clown at all. He was generous minded, on guard against all prejusices, though a few were too deep rooted in his native background to be observed by him.
From a letter to David Kolb, S.J. dated November 11, 1964:
I personally found Letters to Malcolm a distressing and in parts horrifying work. I began a commentary on it, but if finished it would not be publishable.
Now, I find the above amusing because I quite liked Letters to Malcolm. I'm always disappointed to read reviews of things (such as album, movie, or book reviews) that completely go against what I think. I don't want to think of myself as insular, but perhaps I am. I really would rather perfer someone to agree wholeheartedly with me about a particular piece of art. Sometimes, when someone (whose opinion I value) completely disagrees with me on something I happen to have loved, I get really sad and think to myself, "Am I stupid? How come I liked that so much when so and so clearly hated it?" I never, though, go back on liking something just because someone else didn't like it. I will say that I have gone back on disliking something because someone liked it. I can think of two examples right off the top of my head: when I first read Till We Have Faces by C.S.L., I wasn't too fond of it, but I picked it back up in February (years after the first read) because Jed had mentioned that he really enjoyed the book...so I tried to read it with different eyes and have come to appreciate it. Also, on Caedmon's Call's self titled album, track 3 was always the track I skipped over (even though Derek does employ his infamous scream that usually makes my heart skip a beat on this track). Upon learning that Jed actually considers it one of Caedmon's Call's best songs, I listened more carefully and discovered, that while I wouldn't put it on repeat, it definitely has some merit aside from the heart stopping scream. All of this to say that even though Tolkien hailed Letters to Malcolm as a distressing and horrifying work, I am still going to love it and recommend it to anyone.
I include this last snippet just because it amused me. It's taken from a letter to Micahel Tolkien (a grandson who was studying at St. Andrews in Scotland) dated January 9-10, 1965:
...I find it very bitter when my children stray away from the Church. Of course Canaan seems different to those who have come into it out of the desert; and the latter inhabitants of Jerusalem may often seem fools or knaves, or worse...I have met snuffy, stupid, undutiful, conceited, ignorant, hypocritical, lazy, tipsy, hardhearted, cynical, mean, grasping, vulgar, snobbish, and even (at a guess) immoral priests 'in the course of my peregrinations';but for me one Father Francis outweighs them all, and he was an upperclass Welsh-Spaniarh Tory, and seemed to some just a pottering old snob and gossip...
I'm not going to add anything else to that :-).
In other news: the week is half-way over. So far this week there has been: cooking dinner at the church on Tuesday, serving dinner at the church tonight, 10th grade registration for next semester (the joys of being an English teacher...since everyone has an English class, all important things take place though English...ugh), midterm grades were due today, National Honor Society general meeting. Still to happen this week: Bible study tomorrow, painting the parking lot (yep, it's a 2 week process) on Saturday...and maybe that's it. I have a pretty irritating ant bite on one of my toes. That's all.
Something to look forward to: Jack and Bobby comes on shortly and that means I'll be talking to Matthew on the commercial breaks.
From a letter to Anne Barrett at Houghton Mifflin Co. dated August 30, 1964:
C.S.L. (C.S. Lewis) of course had some oddities and could sometimes be irritating. He was after all and remained an Irishman of Ulster. But he did nothing for effect; he was not a professional clown, but a natural one, when a clown at all. He was generous minded, on guard against all prejusices, though a few were too deep rooted in his native background to be observed by him.
From a letter to David Kolb, S.J. dated November 11, 1964:
I personally found Letters to Malcolm a distressing and in parts horrifying work. I began a commentary on it, but if finished it would not be publishable.
Now, I find the above amusing because I quite liked Letters to Malcolm. I'm always disappointed to read reviews of things (such as album, movie, or book reviews) that completely go against what I think. I don't want to think of myself as insular, but perhaps I am. I really would rather perfer someone to agree wholeheartedly with me about a particular piece of art. Sometimes, when someone (whose opinion I value) completely disagrees with me on something I happen to have loved, I get really sad and think to myself, "Am I stupid? How come I liked that so much when so and so clearly hated it?" I never, though, go back on liking something just because someone else didn't like it. I will say that I have gone back on disliking something because someone liked it. I can think of two examples right off the top of my head: when I first read Till We Have Faces by C.S.L., I wasn't too fond of it, but I picked it back up in February (years after the first read) because Jed had mentioned that he really enjoyed the book...so I tried to read it with different eyes and have come to appreciate it. Also, on Caedmon's Call's self titled album, track 3 was always the track I skipped over (even though Derek does employ his infamous scream that usually makes my heart skip a beat on this track). Upon learning that Jed actually considers it one of Caedmon's Call's best songs, I listened more carefully and discovered, that while I wouldn't put it on repeat, it definitely has some merit aside from the heart stopping scream. All of this to say that even though Tolkien hailed Letters to Malcolm as a distressing and horrifying work, I am still going to love it and recommend it to anyone.
I include this last snippet just because it amused me. It's taken from a letter to Micahel Tolkien (a grandson who was studying at St. Andrews in Scotland) dated January 9-10, 1965:
...I find it very bitter when my children stray away from the Church. Of course Canaan seems different to those who have come into it out of the desert; and the latter inhabitants of Jerusalem may often seem fools or knaves, or worse...I have met snuffy, stupid, undutiful, conceited, ignorant, hypocritical, lazy, tipsy, hardhearted, cynical, mean, grasping, vulgar, snobbish, and even (at a guess) immoral priests 'in the course of my peregrinations';but for me one Father Francis outweighs them all, and he was an upperclass Welsh-Spaniarh Tory, and seemed to some just a pottering old snob and gossip...
I'm not going to add anything else to that :-).
In other news: the week is half-way over. So far this week there has been: cooking dinner at the church on Tuesday, serving dinner at the church tonight, 10th grade registration for next semester (the joys of being an English teacher...since everyone has an English class, all important things take place though English...ugh), midterm grades were due today, National Honor Society general meeting. Still to happen this week: Bible study tomorrow, painting the parking lot (yep, it's a 2 week process) on Saturday...and maybe that's it. I have a pretty irritating ant bite on one of my toes. That's all.
Something to look forward to: Jack and Bobby comes on shortly and that means I'll be talking to Matthew on the commercial breaks.
posted by alisa beth at 7:48 PM
5 Comments:
Yeah, so sometimes I'm a fierce battler, sometimes...not so much. I'll "throw down" anytime, any place, with anyone, when it comes to defending Peter Pan though (and all things associated with it, such as Finding Neverland). And sometimes, say for instance when people don't like FELICITY (only one of the greatest shows EVER), I certainly don't question MY intense love for the show...I simply say, "Oh dear, they just have NO IDEA what they're talking about."
Two things:
1. It's nice that you are no longer anonymous. Perhaps I should get a name for livejournal.
2. It's nice that you wrote realised instead of realized. I bet you write things like colour and programme.
hey a-b,
thanks for the help with the blog list. you're on mine too!
i too am mystified when people don't love the things i love. not really when it comes to music, since everybody's tastes are so different. but when it comes to a movie i really like, i'm like how is it possible that you don't understand? like as far as i know, everybody and their dead grandma HATES the movie meet joe black, which is one of the few dvds that i have actually bought with my own money. i was watching it with my friend erin and she said it was boring and went to sleep!
anyway i just kind of shrug and let it go. i'm not a big arguer.
When people disagree with me, I just tell myself that they only disagree with me because they can't even begin to comprehend the nuances and undertones of the work I enjoy, and if they even for an instant began to grasp anything other than basic plot lines and character sketches, their heads would violently explode, spraying brain matter in a 3-foot radius around their body.
By the way, that sentence contained 65 words. And the Windbag of the Year award goes to...
Ahhhhh!!! I had a totally perfect comment and then it went and disappeared on me. Anyway. I have to go to bed so I can't recreate it. But just so you know, it linked your post with my thanks for hanging in there for me and missing me in the past few weeks. So please consider yourself thanked for keeping me in the world of dedicated bloggers, because I intend to be back!
My favorite letter quote is the one about priests. That's how I feel like God feels about me sometimes: he doesn't like everything I do, but sticks around through the bad moments for the most precious ones which make up for everything else.
Hey, this is Amy (really Amy and Myrtle, 'cause i am at her house). My computer isn't even hooked up. This was our first venture into the world of blogging. Myrtle was pleased to see comment on her wonderful daughter, as well as a link to her blog! We love you, Alisa Beth!!!!!
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